Writing That Works, 3e_ How to Communicate Effectively in Business - Kenneth Roman [41]
Unless you are able to sell your ideas, you might as well not have had them.
Recommendations That Persuade
All organizations spend lots of time preparing recommendations, often with several options. Henry Kissinger used to say that State Department memos commonly offer three options: the first leads to nuclear war, the second to unconditional surrender, and the third is what they want you to choose.
To get the decision you seek, keep in mind that you have been living with the subject and your audience has not, or at least not with the same intensity. You have to bring people into your subject before you can persuade them. Remember too that you are usually in competition with other recommendations for finite resources. You must be more convincing and make a persuasive case.
Here are some principles for making a persuasive case:
1. Think of it as selling — not as presenting
Just laying out your views is not enough. You must marshal both logic and passion behind your facts. Anticipate your audience’s reservations and face them squarely. Instill confidence that you have thought hard about potential pitfalls, and are fully prepared to guide the venture around them safely and successfully.
That starts with the title — which should promise a benefit. Why is this worth the reader’s time and attention?
2. Tell people where you are going
Your first paragraph should establish both your subject and its scope. The strategy for Harry Truman’s successful campaign for the presidency in 1948, spelled out in a forty-three-page memo, started with this paragraph:
The aim of this memorandum is to outline a course of political conduct for the Administration extending from November, 1947, to November, 1948. The basic premise of this memorandum — that the Democratic Party is an unhappy alliance of Southern conservatives, Western progressives and Big City labor — is very trite, but it is also very true. And it is equally true that the success or failure of the Democratic leadership can be precisely measured by its ability to lead enough members of these three misfit groups to the polls on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, 1948.
In pointing out where you’re going, it often helps to remind people where you’re coming from. Persuasive recommendations usually include a section on background — earlier decisions or familiar information into which this recommendation fits.
If you have done an impressively thorough job in arriving at your recommendation, it pays to spell that out in the background. To persuade the board of managers of the New York Botanical Garden that its recommendations were soundly based, a management consulting firm summarized its wideranging activities:
Reviews with the staff of major programs and functions; analysis of financial records, interviews with Board members; visits to three other botanical gardens; comparison of the Board structure and fund-raising activities with those of other comparable New York institutions; preliminary interviews with foundations, corporations and government officials to gauge the outlook for future funding.
This background, demonstrating that no stone had been left unturned, prepared the audience to respond favorably to the report’s findings, conclusions, and far-reaching recommendations.
For long recommendations, it’s helpful to start with an executive summary. Include all main points, a sentence or two for each. Let the full document fill in the details.
3. Lead people through with headings
It helps your audience to follow your train of thought if you keep it on track with bulleted or numbered headings.
A recommendation to advertise